Will it be a boring Macworld or will Apple make history again in January? I prefer the latter

If we go by last year, we will see an update to the iPhone and iPod Touch capacity. It's my feeling that doubling capacity isn't feasible, so Apple will take advantage of the dual flash chips in each device to offer a 50% increase. Meaning, the 8 and 16GB iPhones will have a 24GB model (8GB+16GB=24GB) for the two flash chips inside. The 8, 16 and 32GB iPod Touch would then have a 48GB model (16GB+32GB=48GB) for the two flash chips inside.

We have been programmed to think that you can only double capacity because of BASE-2 rules, but we are talking about two separate chips connecting to one controller that is aggregating the two flash sticks capacities into one. Many phones already do this by taking the limited 128MB Flash for the OS and adding it to the SD card of xGB when inserted. I don' have a lot of followers (if any) on this forum backing me up on this concept, but when you project the future of Flash there is no other option available until you want to make the iPod/iPhone model stagnant for 18-24 months at a time.

If the likely situation of new Mac notebook case revisions come out next week, then I think Apple may forego or skim over many other new products that are up for a revision. For instance, the iMac was updated in April with Montevina-like aspects to the chipset so we may not see a new one until MacWorld, or perhaps just a quite update to full Montevina. The only real changes will be some minor performance changes and power savings, both of which aren't going to matter to most iMac buyers. The Mac Mini is an odd situation that is so long overdue for a revision that Apple could just not update it again, cancel it or turn it into a whole semi-xMac machine that many posters here have been clamoring for.

I think the best thing we can except from MacWorld is a new product announcement, an in-depth demo of Snow Leopard and a whole bunch of stats of how Apple did in their first fiscal quarter and for the 2008 calender year.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.

I have a 15" PowerBook G4 with dual link DVI, but my use of video out wouldn't change if I had a MacBook, so my answer would be #2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism

Q2) How many time have you used the DVD/CD on you MacBooks?

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.

#2 again, though I've used it a bit more than that (mainly for less than legal purposes ). But since I've come clean, I don't think I've used it in a year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism

Q3) How many time have you used the DVD/CD on you MacBooks to play movies music?

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.
5) I copy the data to iTS or the HDD as an ISO or use HandBrake/VirtualHub to save on power consumption and hassle

2" Literally once or twice for DVD watching and only a handful for simply listening to a CD in the disc drive. Mainly I do #5.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism

Q4) How do you feel about the CD/DVD drive becoming an external option?

1) That would be a great idea, until we can get rid of it altogether. Plus we would get faster read/write speeds from using thicker optical drives that aren't subject to the super-thin drives Apple uses.
2) I like to lug around obsolescing tech that takes up more room than everything in my notebook, save for the battery, because it makes me feel retro.
3) I like knowing that I can slowly burn a disc as opposed to enailing or copying to another computer or Flash drive, because it gives me more time to flirt with the girls I'm tutoring.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere because it won't be affected by an EM pulse.
5) All those faulty CD/DVD burns make for a great party trick when you put them in a microwave, as well as cup coasters for bachelor pads

Haha, great choices. I'm pretty much #1, though I don't want a removable SuperDrive, I want it completely separate, like the Air. I'd prefer this on all of Apple's laptops (and in the future, desktops...if people still really use desktop computers in the future), to reduce space, costs, eliminate that ejecting sound at startup, and well, just to be rid of that archaic, increasingly useless thing.

6) I would like the CD/DVD drive to be removable so I can fit my laptop with dual batteries and go twice as long without recharging.

7) I would like the CD/DVD drive to be removable so I can fit my laptop with dual hard drives for double the storage.

Apple isn't about having those interchangeable systems as it weakens the case structure, thickens the case, and just causes too much complexity that few people use.

However, giving you the benefit of the doubt, could that taped up port near the front of the left size of the case be an easy access port to get into the internals? Getting access to the HDD, RAM, and optical drive for another HDD or battery? (I don't really believe this, but I'm trying to see this from the other side)

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

So now we will need several adaptors? None of them cheap either. The reason I haven't bothered connecting my Macs up to our TVs is that we will need 4 different very pricey cables, plus the separate audio cables, which will probably become rapidly redundant.

Apple has always made life difficult with monitor connections. I've lost track of how many different plugs and cables they've used.

I have learnt to not even try.

Because an $8 DVI to HDMI cable (6 ft) is expensive? Please. Apple can't help that you can't google for decent quality cables at a good price.

There's at least one disk that runs slower on FW400 than USB2. Saw the review and decided not to buy it despite it being on sale. The maker (Seagate owns them...WD?) claimed it was because Apple improved the performance of USB2 in Leopard.

Most drives these days are USB2 and folks are reasonably happy without FW. The only real need is for cameras that only output on FW.

IMHO the only shame is that the MB doesn't have an expresscard slot. That would allow folks to get the kind of port they wanted as opposed to the kind someone else wanted. eSATA, FW800, whatever.

As for the MBP...any "pro" whining about the loss of a FW400 port should just get an eSATA bay and card assuming the MBP won't already come with eSATA.

Ah, interesting. But you weren't telling me this because you thought I was one of those people decrying Apple for dropping FW on the MacBook, were you? Because I wasn't one of those people.

Like the difference between a landline and a cellphone, so is the signal quality by Ethernet superior to Wi-Fi. If Apple leaves Ethernet, I think I might have to leave Apple, which is one of the worst things imaginable.

Buddy, if Apple leaves Ethernet, I will leave Apple with you along with the millions of other Mac users who would be very confused by that move on Apple's part.

The Macbook, in my opinion, feels considerably smaller in my hands than my 15" MacBook Pro. Let me guess, you're probably one of the people that said that Apple would never release anything like the MacBook Air because 2lbs doesn't "break the deal".

To me, the MacBook Pro feels only slightly larger than the MB, and my perception actually corresponds to reality.

No, I never predicted anything about the Air, so don't make assumptions.

My Macbook was stolen a few weeks ago so I have been patiently waiting for this release. Now I see there is no firewire? Thanks for rendering iVideo completely useless to me, Apple. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a DV camcorder.

The ethernet port is far more useless.

The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.

1) never.
2) one or twice in the time i've had my mb.
3) every week or so.

4) almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.q2) how many time have you used the dvd/cd on you macbooks?

1) never.
2) one or twice in the time i've had my mb.

3) every week or so.
4) almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.
q3) how many time have you used the dvd/cd on you macbooks to play movies music?

1) never.

2) one or twice in the time i've had my mb.
3) every week or so.
4) almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.
5) i copy the data to its or the hdd as an iso or use handbrake/virtualhub to save on power consumption and hassle
q4) how do you feel about the cd/dvd drive becoming an external option?

1)

that would be a great idea, until we can get rid of it altogether. Plus we would get faster read/write speeds from using thicker optical drives that aren't subject to the super-thin drives apple uses.
2) i like to lug around obsolescing tech that takes up more room than everything in my notebook, save for the battery, because it makes me feel retro.
3) i like knowing that i can slowly burn a disc as opposed to enailing or copying to another computer or flash drive, because it gives me more time to flirt with the girls i'm tutoring.
4) almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere because it won't be affected by an em pulse.
5) all those faulty cd/dvd burns make for a great party trick when you put them in a microwave, as well as cup coasters for bachelor pads

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.

Q2) How many time have you used the DVD/CD on you MacBooks?

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.

Q3) How many time have you used the DVD/CD on you MacBooks to play movies music?

1) Never.
2) One or twice in the time I've had my MB.
3) Every week or so.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere.
5) I copy the data to iTS or the HDD as an ISO or use HandBrake/VirtualHub to save on power consumption and hassle

Q4) How do you feel about the CD/DVD drive becoming an external option?

1) That would be a great idea, until we can get rid of it altogether. Plus we would get faster read/write speeds from using thicker optical drives that aren't subject to the super-thin drives Apple uses.
2) I like to lug around obsolescing tech that takes up more room than everything in my notebook, save for the battery, because it makes me feel retro.
3) I like knowing that I can slowly burn a disc as opposed to enailing or copying to another computer or Flash drive, because it gives me more time to flirt with the girls I'm tutoring.
4) Almost constantly when at home/school/elsewhere because it won't be affected by an EM pulse.
5) All those faulty CD/DVD burns make for a great party trick when you put them in a microwave, as well as cup coasters for bachelor pads

While I have a MBP and may not be the intended audience for the poll, I think your poll is really quite biased. You really don't like optical drives or optical formats do you?

I use my DVI port infrequently, perhaps 6-10 times per year, but its indispensable when needed. If you need to give a PP or keynote presentation you need that port and a DVI to VGA connector giving presentations is still a common use for laptops so hopefully Apple will keep it or give as an alternative that will interface easily with todays monitors and projectors.

As for optical I really hope they do not discard it on their mainstream laptops. While I think the MBA should not come with an optical drive leaving it off the MBs and MBPs would be a grave mistake. While many savvy users here can easily work around the loss of an optical drive I'm not sure the average consumer can. Besides when people compare features on Windows laptops vs. MBs and MBPs the lack of an optical drive combined with lower PC laptops prices will make the Apple laptops appear to be a very poor value.

I use my optical drive on a weekly basis. I would miss it greatly if I didn't have it.

I was supporting your position...that said, I DO own a video camera with nothing but FW 400 out. So I'd have to hope that FW 400 to USB adapter that Rolo posted about doesn't suck too much.

Cool.

Yeah, I mean, while I'm not too bummed and the average consumer likely won't miss FW on the MacBook, I don't know how necessary Apple's move was to kill Firewire entirely on the MacBook. That's why I keep thinking we'll see a FW800 port on the next major MacBook revision (and maybe even on a future revision of the Air). Apple left FW800 on the MacBook Pro for a reason. If they hadn't dropped FW400 on the MacBook, it'd be the only laptop still shipping with that interface, so this seems like a deliberate killing off of FW400 specifically.

FW800 could give them an edge if they put out iPods and iPhones that sync and charge over FW800, and ship with FW800 cables in addition to the USB cables. Then they could advertise Macs as the "fastest syncing computers on the planet," or at the very least a caption that says iPhones and iPods sync faster over FW800.

Dropping the FW port from the MB would be a huge mistake.
I use it daily for helping out customers with problems on their macs.
Target disk mode is a wonderful system that Apple shouldn't drop. Migration assistant over USB is not possible. Unless they change that wich I doubt they will. Daisy chaining with FW is a treu delight. USB on the other hand forces mee to get a fugly hub aka another device on the desk.
No Apple, No FW on the MB is a big mistake. Unless of course they implement FW over ethernet.
I can live without ethernet, but loosing FW is a serious step back.

I'd love to see Power over eSATA on all the machines. I'd like eSATA to be bootable and do TDM. I'd also love an eSATA 32GB Flash drive, that I could install Vista on and boot to when I desired, and when I don't need Vista I could remove the eSATA Flash drive to keep it separate from my machine running OS X.

I'd love to see Power over eSATA on all the machines. I'd like eSATA to be bootable and do TDM. I'd also love an eSATA 32GB Flash drive, that I could install Vista on and boot to when I desired, and when I don't need Vista I could remove the eSATA Flash drive to keep it separate from my machine running OS X.

why would e-sata not be bootable? it is just like using a on board sata port.

I am going to be buying a MacBook or MacBook pro...I would rather not spend the extra 500 for 2 extra inches of screen (aside from the obvious extra power)... I plan to use photoshop, Flash, and possibly final cut Studio. If I buy a 24 inch display, will I be stuck with the same max resolution of the 13 inch MacBook?

Regarding the size differences between the MB and the MBP to musicians, I guess the issue is paranoia, not reality.

The fact remains that the MBP is...what...10% larger? Probably not even, but then again, if you desperately want to believe something, then you can.

Carrying around an extra .4lb and barely 1"x1" is not a big deal for those of us who are...um...not 80lb teens.

Look at THAT difference! I'm sorry, but the size argument is ridiculous to most rational people.

I'm not sure what your goal is here but do realize you are not leaving an impression of intelligence.

First linear measurements mean nothing as has been pointed out it is the area that counts. Also the color of the product does make a difference. There are reasons for the black painted crap on stage.

In any event get out of the cellar and go to a concert or other event where artists perform live. Count the number of bright shinny laptops you can find. Then hunt a lot harder for those smaller black ones. Then go around looking at the number of devices hooked up to the laptops and the interfaces used. Afterwards I think you will be singing a different tune.

I'm not sure what your goal is here but do realize you are not leaving an impression of intelligence.

First linear measurements mean nothing as has been pointed out it is the area that counts. Also the color of the product does make a difference. There are reasons for the black painted crap on stage.

In any event get out of the cellar and go to a concert or other event where artists perform live. Count the number of bright shinny laptops you can find. Then hunt a lot harder for those smaller black ones. Then go around looking at the number of devices hooked up to the laptops and the interfaces used. Afterwards I think you will be singing a different tune.

Dave

Ignoring your rudeness, your point about the MacBook's black color option and its use on stage is pretty weak. How would you know if the band was using any Macs or computers on stage at all? If they're black, you can't tell one way or the other, so it's a stretch to presume the reason you don't see any is because they're all using black MacBooks. There's more than one way to hide a laptop on stage...that is, if the artist actually cares. I know Radiohead often prominently has a MacBook Pro on stage for all their effects and I'm sure others simply do a better job of hiding them.

This weak advantage (if you can even call it that) MacBooks have with color will end this Tuesday when they all transition to aluminum (which, by the way, we both know ain't that shiny).

You keep talking about two separate chips below but niether the iPhone nor the Touch currently support that. Atleast not from what I've seen. Now Apple might go with a stacked die solution but I suspect that is a bit expensive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by solipsism

If we go by last year, we will see an update to the iPhone and iPod Touch capacity. It's my feeling that doubling capacity isn't feasible, so Apple will take advantage of the dual flash chips in each device to offer a 50% increase. Meaning, the 8 and 16GB iPhones will have a 24GB model (8GB+16GB=24GB) for the two flash chips inside. The 8, 16 and 32GB iPod Touch would then have a 48GB model (16GB+32GB=48GB) for the two flash chips inside.

We have been programmed to think that you can only double capacity because of BASE-2 rules, but we are talking about two separate chips connecting to one controller that is aggregating the two flash sticks capacities into one. Many phones already do this by taking the limited 128MB Flash for the OS and adding it to the SD card of xGB when inserted. I don' have a lot of followers (if any) on this forum backing me up on this concept, but when you project the future of Flash there is no other option available until you want to make the iPod/iPhone model stagnant for 18-24 months at a time.

Interestingly I'd would love to see expandable storage in a iPhone. Not so much for the music and video end of the IPhone but for applications to store and exchange info. I understand some of the reasons for sandboxing but it does lead to frustrations. Having a file system available that is unrestricted opens up a lot of potential apps for iPhone.

Quote:

If the likely situation of new Mac notebook case revisions come out next week, then I think Apple may forego or skim over many other new products that are up for a revision. For instance, the iMac was updated in April with Montevina-like aspects to the chipset so we may not see a new one until MacWorld, or perhaps just a quite update to full Montevina. The only real changes will be some minor performance changes and power savings, both of which aren't going to matter to most iMac buyers. The Mac Mini is an odd situation that is so long overdue for a revision that Apple could just not update it again, cancel it or turn it into a whole semi-xMac machine that many posters here have been clamoring for.

I think the best thing we can except from MacWorld is a new product announcement, an in-depth demo of Snow Leopard and a whole bunch of stats of how Apple did in their first fiscal quarter and for the 2008 calender year.

Boy you can really kill the buzz with respect to MWSF. Depending on what Apple delivers on the 14Th we could have one very interesting MWSF. Yeah it is like three months off but since I'm not buying this round the hope is the next round will be better.

I am going to be buying a MacBook or MacBook pro...I would rather not spend the extra 500 for 2 extra inches of screen (aside from the obvious extra power)... I plan to use photoshop, Flash, and possibly final cut Studio. If I buy a 24 inch display, will I be stuck with the same max resolution of the 13 inch MacBook?

1) Don't buy anything until the new machines arrive,
2) The Mini-DVI on the 13" display will allow for the maximum resolution of a SL-DVI display, while a MBP will allow for the maximum resolution tha a DL-DVI can dispaly.
3) All is revealed below:

PS: I don't think the current X3100 can do extended desktop, just mirroring, but this might change with the X4500 that may be used in the new update if Apple goes with Montevina, hence my request to wait a week. If Apple does go with NVIDIA, I would assume that DL-DVI would allow be a possibility, too, but you;ll have to wait.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

You keep talking about two separate chips below but niether the iPhone nor the Touch currently support that. Atleast not from what I've seen. Now Apple might go with a stacked die solution but I suspect that is a bit expensive.

hey do use two chips for both the Touch and the iPhone. IT doens't take up much room and it reduces the costs considerably than trying to force that same capacity into a chip for considerably more cost. It's realy the only option for a device as large as the Touch and iPhone (despite being considerably smaller than its alternatives).

yes it will, because it is not about weight or cubic volume, it's about two-dimensional space. how big it LOOKS when unfolded. never mind thin-ness, curves or weight.
also on stage you'd want it to be inconspicuous (black and small) and those 2 extra inches matter a lot.. they matter more that the added extra empty space on the side of the macBook by not adding FW.
and on a cramped stage or DJ table, 13" is way easier to fit in without it extending over the edges of the table/piano/whatever.
and then the laptop is the one thing that you wouldn't throw in the back of the truck with the rest of the gear, it's the thing you carry with you 24/7 next to your toothbrush, a family pack of condoms and some clean underwear. also a 15" wouldn't fit in a standard tool case (or my backpack).

I will also ignore your rudeness and simply point out (again) your weak and irrational arguments. I've owned the MB for more than 24 months and have had the MBP at the same time too, so I base my perceptions of their relative sizes on actual use. That picture posted a page back is pretty damning evidence that those who perceive the MB to be much smaller are simply deceived and aren't basing their perceptions on measurable reality. You can perceive anything that you want, but the FACT remains that the dimensions are not too wide apart, and this is in "two-dimensional space," as shown by the picture.

Also, show me a DJ table, which can easily hold a MB but NOT a MBP. Otherwise, your arguments are irrational and lack any evidence other than your subjective perception.

Finally, just because your musicians use the MB, it is not proof that all or even most musicians use it over the MBP.

Another nice change in the new MacBooks/Pros I just noticed: two visible screws on the sides and two hidden in the back.

There used to be two on either side of the MacBook (so four visible screws in total, though weren't there some smaller screws in the back) and four on either side of the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros (totaling eight visible screws, though I think there were some smaller screws in the back as well).

That's going to look pretty slick. And all (but the Air) will have easily removable hard drives and RAM as well.

That picture posted a page back is pretty damning evidence that those who perceive the MB to be much smaller are simply deceived and aren't basing their perceptions on measurable reality. You can perceive anything that you want, but the FACT remains that the dimensions are not too wide apart, and this is in "two-dimensional space," as shown by the picture.

And not only that, the picture you used compared the MacBook Pro to a black MacBook, which even he admitted would give it a smaller appearance. A MBP next to a white MacBook would have been even more damning.

But we both know there will be plenty of posters here who will bitch out Apple for not giving them enough warning about upcoming product changes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wobegon

That's going to look pretty slick. And all (but the Air) will have easily removable hard drives and RAM as well.

The screws going to the bottom of the MB/MBP cases will be aesthetically pleasing, but I hope it doesn't' weaken the structure with the weighting pulling down instead of on the sides. Also, I hope they redesign the MBA to have the battery bay accessible underneath with an option to ad up to at least 4GB of RAM).

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

The screws going to the bottom of the MB/MBP cases will be aesthetically pleasing, but I hope it doesn't' weaken the structure with the weighting pulling down instead of on the sides. Also, I hope they redesign the MBA to have the battery bay accessible underneath with an option to add up to at least 4GB of RAM).

I doubt an Air w/ replaceable battery is coming anytime soon (since the average computer user rarely ever replaces the stock battery), but perhaps EU legislation will require a change.

Considering the Air's construction being noted by many reviewers as noticeably more durable, it seems these new MacBooks/Pros based off that design (to a degree) will only gain durability.

— What you list as the FW800 looks more like a Mini-DVI port in that image. Even the associated image for the port matches the Mini-DVI port image on my MacBook.
— What is being considered the MagSafe connector looks larger than the current MagSafe connector.
— All other Mac EC/34 slots use an oblong port hole, but this is rectangle. Why the aestethically unpleasing change, especially when ExpressCards are rounded at the edges?
— I don't see the reason to have a DL-DVI-I and a Mini-DI on the same machine.
— What is that perfectly round hole next to the taped "DL-DVI-I" port? An oddly side-mounted IR receiver makes no sense. Could be an eject button for what ever does fit into the taped over port?

I'm lost on how this would cool the system. Any heat from running mutliple monitors would result from the CPU and GPU, not the external port.

This oddly rectangle port on these MB mockups are large enough to carry all the necessary data to a docking station. I would give this open a solid 1% of actually occurring as docking stations among retail or corporate consumers, but it's certainly a best non-Sci-Fi I've read.

PS: But that was before notebooks were the primary sale target for PCs. If Apple does make a dock connector then I think we can assume that they will vying for the corporate environment with their PCs, but I still stay that they will need an entirely new line of non-Mac PCs to make it work.

The inner casing locale of the current graphics card is crammed. The system already runs hot and these photos show a slimmer casing. Graphics cards aren't runner cooler, and the conductive heat transfer of the system with lower volume of air between the chipset and it's surroundings only increases the heat build up.

As I stated before, I don't believe these are final designs, but a design idea stamped out and tested, then tossed.

Been waiting forever for decent graphic performance, so if the GPU is significantly better than my Mid-2007 MBP, I'll upgrade. I drive a 30" monitor from the MBP, but dont mind buying/using an adapter cable, AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT REDUCE THE QUALITY. This should be a digital-to-digital solution, so probably not a problem.

So if I was stuck with only one FW800 port, I could daisy chain my drives off the one port if required, or maybe find a FW800 hub (Belkin supposedly makes one, but noone has in stock)

As for the eSATA port, my RAID and main backup drives are on a PortMultiplied eSATA tower connected with a Sonnet Dual eSATA ExpressCard, so a single eSATA port is not much use to me.

For USB, I've got 7 USB devices I use regularly (HPLaserJet, EpsonInkJet, FujitsuScanner, Keyboard, Trackball, iPhone, SDCardReader) which max out my ports and powered hub. Wonder how much more one can throw at USB before it bogs down...

But like I said, give me some serious GPU power (and maybe 8GB of RAM?!) and I'll be happy....

It is about time Apple created a new case for their laptops. USB is that standard for consumer video camera's so it is no surprise that firewire would be absent from the Macbook.

I'm jealous now and after only having my MacBook for a little less than a year I want this new one already. Hopefully and wishfully Apple will intro a econo version of around $699 to blow away the competition and take some more market share from the WinTel group.

It is about time Apple created a new case for their laptops. USB is that standard for consumer video camera's so it is no surprise that firewire would be absent from the Macbook.

I'm sure the MBPs will still have FW as it's still an industry standard among professionals.

Quote:

'm jealous now and after only having my MacBook for a little less than a year I want this new one already.

Since being registered here since May 2006 you should be aware of the ~3 year update cycle between case changes and the ~7 month revision cycle between Macs. What is lesser known is that the longer they prolong an update the more likely major revisions will be coming. I'm sure you can get a pretty penny for it on eBay or Craig's List if you post it immediately.

Quote:

Hopefully and wishfully Apple will intro a econo version of around $699 to blow away the competition and take some more market share from the WinTel group.

Analusts started with with a $1000 Mac notebook, which then led to a $900 Mac, which then led to an $800 Mac, and now I am reading a $700 Mac. From a business perspective, this is lower than the average selling price of the average non-Mac PC so I'm certain this won't happen. I do think Apple will offer a simpler MacBook for $999 (and perhaps as low as $899), but you can't play the commodity PC game and expect to maintain profits without cutting costs elsewhere.

My guess is that the new ower-end chipsets and processors will run OS X Leopard just fine without requiring Apple to resort to adding excessive traillware to their system. for those that haven't noticed, there isn't a single, defualt OS X application that will expire in x-many days. Both the Office for Mac Test Drive and iWork Trial have been removed from the installation disc. The only app thzt might qualify is QuickTime, but it now allow you to do full screen in Leopard and you are under no obligation to by the Pro version. Try finding something similar on a typical PC.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Firewire. There is still a possibility of 1394c: FW800 on CAT-5 cable (sharing the RJ45 with Ethernet).

Since a lot of people are connected wirelessly to Internet, the Ethernet port is less required.
Still, implementing 1394c on the RJ45 port would allow users than need fast networking to have GbE and people would need faster data transfers to have FW800.

I would suspect that this being the case, the firewire on the MBP is the higher speed 3200 Mbps or maybe just an extra port to allow easier connection with ethernet and firewire simultaneously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

gives the impression the DVI-I port is the far-left point, down below the keyboard to give space for more airflow and thus a cooler system.

Except that the port you label firewire has a display symbol on it. The one you label DVI-I IMO is the magsafe but it looks like a very stupid place to put it - it's a stupid place to put any cable really because people who rest their hands at the side of their machine are going to knock against it. The magsafe on the MBP could be out of shot to the right but judging by the alignment with the keyboard, they may have moved it to the front. This is after all where the battery will be anyway. Perhaps the firewire 800 made them rethink their positioning.

Mini-DVI makes the Mac look bad in a professional context. You need a special adapter to connect to projector and PC users just plug right in. As for Firewire, it was a nice way to connect a Time Machine disk, but USB will do.

1394a is 30% faster than USB2. This move would be a functional slow-down.

But then it's not Apple's fault that after years of promoting FireWire, none of the other big PC companies and camera companies jumped on board. If Apple is phasing out FireWire, it's just a sad but understandable result of windows based PC's not evolving to include it when they could have.

Since Apple charged a licensing fee for Firewire and Intel didn't charge one for USB, then I think it is very much Apple's fault.

The beauty of these photos includes the fact no one is even questioning whether this is a prototype that was scrapped for another design.

There are no timestamp/manufacturering stamp dates on the photos to indicate how far in the production cycle these test cases reside.

You will not see Gigabit Ethernet [wired] being dropped. Anyone thinking of using these in enterprises for development platforms while not needing more Final Cut Pro features in the Macbook Pro aren't going to convince their clients to switch to wireless networks for their in-house development.

DisplayPort offering both Video and Audio makes sense to have moving foward.

Unless Nvidia or AMD are upgrading their Laptop line of cards, by Oct 14, we are seeing dedicated DVI-I port being on the system for the MacBook Pro.

Moving the MacBook Pro to have a combo FW3200/800 and dropping FW 400, but offering a third party add-on to use FW400 makes sense.

This image:

[CENTER][/CENTER]

gives the impression the DVI-I port is the far-left point, down below the keyboard to give space for more airflow and thus a cooler system.

[CENTER][/CENTER]

The port you marked Firewire doesn't have the Firewire symbol on it, it has the display port symbol on it, unless my eyes are failing me.